Campground Review: Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, San Diego, CA

This is our second month-long stay at Santee Lakes; here is my review from last year: 2012 Santee Lakes Campground Review.

This year we had site #267. This is an excellent site! We had only one neighbor and pretty parkland on the other sides. Though our side yard (right out our door) was rather narrow, there was a very nice sitting area behind our rig. Rosie loved all the quiet park space for her walks.

Verizon service is a perpetual problem at the north end of this park  and the south end is much better. To make or take a phone call we would go outside or put the phone in the Wilson Sleek 4GV booster and use the speakerphone. Fortunately the park upgraded their Tengo Internet service in the past year and it seemed good enough at the beginning of our stay that we decided to take a month long hiatus from our Millenicom internet plan (saving us $70). The parks wifi worked pretty well during most of the month, but it is important to note that they have a 500mb limit per 12 hour period and will seriously throttle your connection when you reach it. During a very slow period the office said they were working with Tengo Internet to fix an issue with AT&T. Obviously the park needs to upgrade their wifi even more, but it is improved and pretty decent service overall.

Despite the Verizon issues, we love this park. Nature abounds here and it feels like an escape from the big city. Excellent walking within the park along the seven lakes plus miles of trails right outside the park. It is important to note that Santee can be very warm in the summer months, in the winter the temps are perfect!

We intend to spend a month here every winter that we visit San Diego. This year we paid $720 plus electric for one month. Since stays of one month or more can be booked a year in advance, we've already booked a month for the same time next year.

View of site #267 from the back. We had one neighbor on our right and beautiful park space on the other sides.